Comment: Why would this be necessary? Among the possibilities is the political sensitivity deriving from past employment of Eichmann and many of his subordinates–and superiors–by elements of Western intelligence, including U.S. and German intelligence services.

Fifty years after Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann’s arrest by the Israeli Mossad in Argentina, basic details about his 15 years as a fugitive remain a government secret. The files kept by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, remain classified today — allegedly for reasons of national security. A German journalist is now suing in a federal court for the release of the files.

Fifty years have passed since Adolf Eichmann’s arrest, but the German foreign intelligence agency, the BND, is still hoping to prevent the release of files detailing his post-war movements. A Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig is currently examining almost 4,500 pages of secret documents on Eichmann, a leading architect of Hitler’s plans to murder Europe’s Jews. The court is soon expected to rule whether the BND’s justifications for concealing the files are still applicable and in line with the country’s freedom of information laws. . . .

. . . Uki Goñi, a prominent Argentine journalist and expert on the post-war Nazi fugitives, has taken a special interest in the BND files and thinks that references to a foreign intelligence service are a smokescreen. “They could easily redact the name of the intelligence service and the name of the informants,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The files would not be embarrassing to any other secret service but to Germany itself.” Goñi believes the files would reveal hitherto unknown levels of collusion between the German government and Nazis who fled overseas to escape prosecution.

In his book, “The Real Odessa,” which describes how the Peron regime systematically aided Nazi war criminals, Goñi documents how Nazi war criminals lived free and easy in Buenos Aires. German Foreign Service members and Nazis visited the same establishments and drank in the same beer hall. The Nazis didn’t hide their allegiances either: “The Nazis would come in, click their heels and throw up their traditional salute,” Goñi told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Eichmann didn’t feel the need to keep a low profile in that community. The German embassy in Buenos Aires gave his wife and children passports in their own name, just as they had given infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele a passport.

Attorney Reiner Geulen thinks that the most explosive information enclosed in the files pertains to Eichmann’s flight from Germany. “He was very chatty in Jerusalem — he knew he was going to die anyway,” Geulen said. According to Geulen, Eichmann explained in great detail who helped him flee Germany and then Europe — information the Israelis were very interested in. “There is good reason to believe that he received help from German, Italian and Vatican officials,” he said. . . .

Discussion

This “hitherto unknown levels of collusion between the German government and Nazis who fled overseas” seems the key to it all, but will the case get through the German court? Bravo Dave, bravo Argentine journalist Uki Goñi.